The Big Day Ahead

Tomorrow is a big day for Icethetics. The biggest ever, in fact.

Two NHL teams are unveiling new uniforms and — for the first time ever — I'll be there in person to report on one of them. It's a long way this little blog has come in six years and it's all thanks to the Dallas Stars — who graciously invited me to their event — and you guys, of course.

I'm immensely grateful to the dozens of readers who donated a few bucks here and there to help cover my travel costs. But without the thousands of readers like you who drop in every day, there wouldn't be an Icethetics at all. So this whole trip to Dallas is for everyone. And I intend to share every minute.

Since you can't physically travel with me, the next best thing is Twitter. (If you don't do Twitter, at least bookmark this page tomorrow and watch the updates roll in.) I'll be tweeting all day.

Here's the schedule. Since I'll be in Dallas, all times are CENTRAL:

• Tuesday, 6:00 AM — New Hurricanes concept art goes live on the Concepts page.
• 9:30 AM — My flight to Dallas departs. Should be just under 4 hours.
• 11:00 AM — HURRICANES UNVEILING: The fun starts in Raleigh while I'm somewhere above the Rocky Mountains. The Carolina Hurricanes will unveil their new uniforms inside PNC Arena at noon local time. The event will be streamed live on the team's website. I just hope my plane is equipped with wi-fi so I can follow along in real time.
• 1:30 PM — I land in Dallas. Once I'm checked in to my hotel room, I'll get to work recapping the Hurricanes' unveiling on the blog.
• 2:30 PM — New Stars concept art goes live on the Concepts page.
• 5:30 PM — STARS UNVEILING: Two hours have been blocked off for this event. I don't know what time exactly the new logos and uniforms will be revealed to us, but if you're following my tweets, you'll know as soon as I do.
• 7:30 PM — The great folks in Dallas agreed to set up an interview for me with someone who can talk about the new branding efforts. I don't have any details on that yet. Any write-up would probably come later in the week.
• Late Tuesday — Following that interview, I'll get to work on a blog recap of the Stars' unveiling event as well. Not sure where I'll be squeezing in meals on this trip, but food is for chumps anyway. Amiright?
• Wednesday, 8:00 AM — I'm on a plane right back home. (Gotta get back to my real job, you know.) I'll use to the flight to try to put together some thoughtful reviews on the new looks we were treated to on Tuesday. Oh, and did I mention it's my birthday? I can think of worse ways to spend it.

Fair warning — I plan to tweet the whole trip. Or as much as I can without overwhelming your feed. It'll be like you're right there with me — good or bad — for about 30 hours.

I'm extremely psyched about tomorrow. It'll be a long, hectic day — but I'm sure completely worth it in the end.

Did Dallas Leak Their Own Logos?

Screen shots from Zach Hutchison (via Stars iOS app)

Never-before-seen logos appear on Stars' mobile app

The Dallas Stars may have leaked their own logos tonight. Oops!

The logos aren't scheduled to be unveiled officially until June 4. But it appears the Stars themselves are responsible for an accidental leak, by way of the Wallpapers section of their own iOS mobile app. The images have since been removed, of course.

A user on the HFBoards web forum named "Zrhutch" posted what he says are screen shots from the app. Zrhutch is Zach Hutchison, who emailed me tonight to confirm he was among the first to spot and post these images. He made sure to grab them for us all to see.

Screen shots from Zach Hutchison (via Stars iOS app)

Now that you've seen them, what do you think? It's hard for me to doubt they're the real deal considering they showed up on the team's own mobile app. Are you surprised? Impressed or disappointed? Personally, I'm still formulating an opinion. Gut reaction is good though.

By the way, I would've had this news on the site sooner, but see there was this little breaking news event in my neck of the woods that kept me at work all night. (My contribution to our coverage tonight if you're interested.)

Stars CEO Previews New Look

Dallas announces official unveiling date of June 4

On Tuesday, the Dallas Stars publicly announced the date for their new uniform and logo unveiling. It's June 4. And as I said two weeks ago, I will be there. (And thank you to everyone who has donated a few bucks here and there to help me with the cost of the trip.)

In the press release, the Stars' CEO spilled a few details about the new look. All right, well not really.

The Dallas Stars announced today that the team will unveil its new uniform and logo on Tuesday, June 4th at the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas at 6:00 p.m. Owner and Governor Tom Gaglardi, President and CEO Jim Lites, General Manager Jim Nill, Executive Advisor and Alternate Governor Mike Modano and Stars forward Jamie Benn will all be a part of the special event.

"Since Tom Gaglardi took over as owner, we have been working diligently on a rebrand that is classic, simple and true-to-hockey," said Lites. "This event will showcase the results of that process to our loyal fans and will also provide us with an opportunity to announce several new developments about the future of our franchise."

Aside from unveiling the new logo and uniform, the team will also address the current state of the franchise and will make a significant announcement regarding the 2013-14 season.

Classic, simple and true to hockey. Let's hope they live up to those words.

I'm excited about the trip. But more than that, I'm thrilled to bring some original reporting to Icethetics for a change. By the way, if you were thinking of making a donation, it's not too late to chip in. You have until June 2 — unless 100% of the costs are covered before then.

And once again I have to thank you guys for the incredible generosity!

Stars' New Look Coming June 4

Image from Dallas Stars

"Special event" scheduled for next month

The Dallas Stars will hold a special event on Tues., June 4 where — presumably — they will officially unveil their long-anticipated new logo and uniforms.

I say "presumably" because they're not strictly saying the new look will be revealed on that date. I, along with surely many others, received an invitation from the team this morning for a "special event." Accompanying that invite was the above photo — the big date spelled out in generic white jerseys.

Do the math.

Unfortunately, Dallas is a bit of a haul from Seattle, so I won't be able to attend — though I'm grateful for the opportunity. The event takes place at 6 PM local time (4 PT) so I'd expect to see images online around that time.

The countdown begins! Who's excited to see what they've come up with?

Let's Catch Up on the Week

The reason you haven't heard from me this week is simple: relocation. I've been packing all my stuff, moving it to a new place, and then unpacking it. All while working. Didn't leave a lot of time for Icethetics. But not to worry, I'm back!

Time to catch up on what I've missed. And there's been quite a bit.

NHL to hold Winter Classic press conference Sunday

First, we'll start with the newest news. Apparently, the NHL has called a press conference for Sunday morning and those in the know are speculating it will be the official announcement that the NHL Winter Classic — scheduled to be played in Ann Arbor, Mich. between the Red Wings and Maple Leafs three months ago — will be rescheduled for Jan. 1, 2014. Or so says Michigan Live's Ansar Khan.

More importantly to Icethetics readers, Khan says the jerseys will be unveiled as well. And assuming the designs weren't changed after the recent leaks, this is what we can expect them to look like

The press conference is scheduled for 10:30 AM ET on Sunday. You can be sure I plan to update the blog with official images as soon as humanly possible.

Thanks to @Levesque_B and @adam_rickert for their helpful tweets this morning.

Dallas Stars' whiff on April Fools' joke

As if their poor fans haven't endured enough these days, the Dallas Stars decided to play a nasty joke on them Monday. It was an April Fools' Day prank that might've been funny in another context.

At this point, it's widely known the Stars will have new uniforms next season. What's not known is when they plan to unveil them. Then the team tweeted this Monday night. 

The third period is gonna be an exciting one! twitter.com/DallasStars/st…

— Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) April 2, 2013

Now, April Fools' Day being what it is, most of us were understandably suspicious. You don't make big announcements on April 1 because no one will believe you. Still, many people were taken in by the idea that the Stars might reveal their new threads that night.

With any hope of making the playoffs quickly fading and the Stars being shut out 3-0 by Anaheim, the promise of a look at the club's future was enough to blind a lot of folks to the calendar. Unfortunately, what they got was a look at their ridiculous past when — as Dallas Morning News beat writer Mike Heika put it — "out of a curtain jumped a guy in a horse head wearing the old alternate sweater — 'The Mooterus,' as it is called in disgust by fans."

Yeah, under the circumstances, not so funny. Chris at SportsLogos.net got into a little more detail on his blog — including some unwelcome fan backlash.

Stars jersey leak prank fools logo website's readers

Speaking of our good friends at SportsLogos.net, Chris decided to join the April Fools' fray on Monday morning, thinking it would be funny to post a phony leak of the Stars' new uniforms.

April Fools' Day prank via SportsLogos.net

Essentially, it's a Tampa Bay Lightning jersey in green with the Dallas Cowboys logo on the front. Can't give him points for creativity, but I can give him points for execution. The grainy "cell phone photo" was intended to look like a shot of an official NHL branding sheet, complete with "CONFIDENTIAL - DO NOT RELEASE UNTIL Q3 2013" watermarked all over.

I thought we'd all have a laugh and move on. Until my inbox starting filling up (thanks, Chris) with people asking if I'd seen the leak. I think many of Chris' readers simply looked at the pretty picture, downloaded it, and posted it to other web forums and such — without bothering to read all the way to the bottom of the page.

Yes, folks, it was a joke. Did you really think the Stars could so blatantly infringe on one of the most valuable identities in all of sports? And spend so much time developing a new brand that simply ripped off other brands? We all know better than that. It was a decent joke, but nothing more.

Penguins may not add new third jersey in 2013

Contrary to what was reported in the last NHL JerseyWatch post, the Pittsburgh Penguins might not be adding a new alternate uniform next season. While they are definitely retiring their blue third at the end of this season, its replacement may still be a couple years away.

This all comes from one succinct tweet by Pittsburgh Tribune-Review beat writer Rob Rossi yesterday.

No #pens trade, but about uniforms that didn't make notes: No alternates at all next season. Maybe new ones in future. Vegas gold staying.

— Rob Rossi (@RobRossi_Trib) April 3, 2013

All the bad news you can fit into 140 characters. New new thirds. And the Vegas gold is staying. Sorry Pens fans, this is apparently not your year.

But briefly on the subject of the JerseyWatch post. I must admit I was making an assumption regarding a new third jersey. All Reebok tends to say in January when it comes to jersey changes is "TBA" — to be announced. All it tells us for sure is that the existing jersey won't be around next season. The question of whether it would be replaced immediately is not answered with "TBA." I just jumped to conclusions.

That's not to say a new third wasn't in the works for 2013. The team may have had something in development that was scrapped before December. We'll probably never know for sure.

Red Wings honor Gordie Howe with No. 9 sweaters

And finally, we'll finish where we started. Michigan. The Detroit Red Wings honored legend Gordie Howe on his 85th birthday Sunday. Every player donned his No. 9 sweater during warm-ups prior to their game against the Blackhawks.

Photo from Detroit Red Wings official website

It was kind of an interesting sight and a neat way to wrap up this post.